Re:The Perks of a High-Documentation, Low-Meeting Work Culture
by closeparen on Tuesday November 22, 2022 @09:16PM
(#33714308)
I treasure the meetings where my users surface requests, problems, and observations to me. Also the meetings where I jam with fellow engineers on how to solve specific problems. But the vast majority of the meetings on my calendar are what I would consider phatic [0]: they're about performing or convincing ourselves and each other of the idea "we are a team and we're collaborating" rather than any actual content, decision, or outcome we're collaborating on. The content is on Slack, or in the hallway.
Interesting - I actually chalk up that to two things: first, people in SWE roles having historically been given a tremendous amount of latitude for behavior that does not conform to "professional" norms. The freedom to dress however they want, work from home, and skip out on meetings they don't want to attend are all of a piece. And second, I think software engineering work is often (generalizing as well) less cross functional than other roles. Gathering requirements and understanding how it fits into a larger company plan is usually tasked out to PMs or tech leads, which is not something I've seen for Finance, HR, Legal, or other functional roles. So the need to schedule their own meetings is also lessened.